1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to methods and compositions for targeting the vasculature of solid tumors using immunological and growth factor-based reagents. In particular aspects, antibodies carrying diagnostic or therapeutic agents are targeted to the vasculature of solid tumor masses through recognition of tumor vasculature-associated antigens, such as endoglin, or through the specific induction of other antigens on vascular endothelial cells in solid tumors.
2. Description of Related Art
Over the past 30 years, fundamental advances in the chemotherapy of neoplastic disease have been realized. While some progress has been made in the development of new chemotherapeutic agents, the more startling achievements have been made in the development of effective regimens for concurrent administration of drugs and our knowledge of the basic science, e.g., the underlying neoplastic processes at the cellular and tissue level, and the mechanism of action of basic antineoplastic agents. As a result of the fundamental achievement, we can point to significant advances in the chemotherapy of a number of neoplastic diseases, including choriocarcinoma, Wilm's tumor, acute leukemia, rhabdomyosarcoma, retinoblastoma, Hodgkin's disease and Burkitt's lymphoma, to name just a few. Despite the impressive advances that have been made in a few tumors, though, many of the most prevalent forms of human cancer still resist effective chemotherapeutic intervention.
The most significant underlying problem that must be addressed in any treatment regimen is the concept of “total cell kill.” This concept holds that in order to have an effective treatment regimen, whether it be a surgical or chemotherapeutic approach or both, there must be a total cell kill of all so-called “clonogenic” malignant cells, that is, cells that have the ability to grow uncontrolled and replace any tumor mass that might be removed. Due to the ultimate need to develop therapeutic agents and regimens that will achieve a total cell kill, certain types of tumors have been more amenable than others to therapy. For example, the soft tissue tumors (e.g., lymphomas), and tumors of the blood and blood-forming organs (e.g., leukemias) have generally been more responsive to chemotherapeutic therapy than have solid tumors such as carcinomas. One reason for this is the greater physical accessibility of lymphoma and leukemic cells to chemotherapeutic intervention. Simply put, it is much more difficult for most chemotherapeutic agents to reach all of the cells of a solid tumor mass than it is the soft tumors and blood-based tumors, and therefore much more difficult to achieve a total cell kill. The toxicities associated with most conventional antitumor agents then become a limiting factor.
A key to the development of successful antitumor agents is the ability to design agents that will selectively kill tumor cells, while exerting relatively little, if any, untoward effects against normal tissues. This goal has been elusive to achieve, though, in that there are few qualitative differences between neoplastic and normal tissues. Because of this, much research over the years has focused on identifying tumor-specific “marker antigens” that can serve as immunological targets both for chemotherapy and diagnosis. Many tumor-specific, or quasi-tumor-specific (“tumor-associated”), markers have been identified as tumor cell antigens that can be recognized by specific antibodies. Unfortunately, it is generally the case that tumor specific antibodies will not in and of themselves exert sufficient antitumor effects to make them useful in cancer therapy.
Over the past fifteen years, immunotoxins have shown great promise as a means of selectively targeting cancer cells. Immunotoxins are conjugates of a specific targeting agent typically a tumor-directed antibody or fragment, with a cytotoxic agent, such as a toxin moiety. The targeting agent directs the toxin to, and thereby selectively kills, cells carrying the targeted antigen. Although early immunotoxins suffered from a variety of drawbacks, more recently, stable, long-lived immunotoxins have been developed for the treatment of a variety of malignant diseases. These “second generation” immunotoxins employ deglycosylated ricin A chain to prevent entrapment of the immunotoxin by the liver and hepatotoxicity (Blakey et al., 1987). They employ new crosslinkers which endow the immunotoxins with high in vivo stability (Thorpe et al., 1988) and they employ antibodies which have been selected using a rapid indirect screening assay for their ability to form highly potent immunotoxins (Till et al., 1988).
Immunotoxins have proven highly effective at treating lymphomas and leukemias in mice (Thorpe et al., 1988; Ghetie et al., 1991; Griffin et al., 1988) and in man (Vitetta et al., 1991). Lymphoid neoplasias are particularly amenable to immunotoxin therapy because the tumor cells are relatively accessible to blood-borne immunotoxins; also, it is possible to target normal lymphoid antigens because the normal lymphocytes which are killed along with the malignant cells during therapy are rapidly regenerated from progenitors lacking the target antigens. In Phase I trials where patients had large bulky tumor masses, greater than 50% tumor regressions were achieved in approximately 40% of the patients (Vitetta et al., 1991). It is predicted that the efficacy of these immunotoxins in patients with less bulky disease will be even better.
In contrast with their efficacy in lymphomas, immunotoxins have proved relatively ineffective in the treatment of solid tumors such as carcinomas (Weiner et al., 1989; Byers et al., 1989). The principal reason for this is that solid tumors are generally impermeable to antibody-sized molecules: specific uptake values of less than 0.001% of the injected dose/g of tumor are not uncommon in human studies (Sands et al., 1988; Epenetos et al., 1986). Furthermore, antibodies that enter the tumor mass do not distribute evenly for several reasons Firstly, the dense packing of tumor cells and fibrous tumor stromas present a formidable physical barrier to macromolecular transport and, combined with the absence of lymphatic drainage, create an elevated interstitial pressure in the tumor core which reduces extravasation and fluid convection (Baxter et al., 1991; Jain, 1990). Secondly, the distribution of blood vessels in most tumors is disorganized and heterogeneous, so some tumor cells are separated from extravasating antibody by large diffusion distances (Jain, 1990). Thirdly, all of the antibody entering the tumor may become adsorbed in perivascular regions by the first tumor cells encountered, leaving none to reach tumor cells at more distant sites (Baxter et al., 1991; Kennel et al., 1991). Finally, antigen-deficient mutants can escape being killed by the immunotoxin and regrow (Thorpe et al., 1988).
Thus, it is quite clear that a significant need exists for the development of novel strategies for the treatment of solid tumors. One approach would be to target cytotoxic agents or coagulants to the vasculature of the tumor rather than to the tumor. Indeed, it has been observed that many existing therapies may already have, as part of their action, a vascular-mediated mechanism of action (Denekamp, 1990). The present inventors propose that this approach offers several advantages over direct targeting of tumor cells. Firstly, the target cells are directly accessible to intravenously administered therapeutic agents, permitting rapid localization of a high percentage of the injected dose (Kennel et al., 1991). Secondly, since each capillary provides oxygen and nutrients for thousands of cells in its surrounding ‘cord’ of tumor, even limited damage to the tumor vasculature could produce an avalanche of tumor cell death (Denekamp, 1990; Denekamp, 1984). Finally, the outgrowth of mutant endothelial cells lacking the target antigen is unlikely because they are normal cells.
For tumor vascular targeting to succeed, antibodies are required that recognize tumor endothelial cells but not those in normal tissues. Although several antibodies have been raised (Duijvestijn et al., 1987; Hagemeier et al., 1986; Bruland et al., 1986; Murray et al., 1989; Schlingemann et al., 1985) none has shown a high degree of specificity.
The antibodies termed TP-1 and TP-3, which were raised against human osteosarcoma cells, have been reported to react with the same antigen present on proliferating osteoblasts in normal degenerating bone tissue. They also cross-react with capillary buds in a number of tumor types and in placenta, but apparently not with capillaries in any of the normal adult tissues examined (Bruland et al., 1986). It remains to be seen whether the TP-1/TP-3 antigen is present on the surface of endothelial cells or whether the antibodies cross-react with gut endothelial cells, as was found with another antibody against proliferating endothelium (Hagemeier et al., 1986). This antibody described by Hagemeier and colleagues (1986), termed EN7/44, reacts with a predominantly intracellular antigen whose expression appears to be linked to migration rather than proliferation (Hagemeier et al., 1986).
Immunotoxins in which the antibody portion is directed against the fibronectin receptor have also been proposed for use in killing proliferating vascular endothelial cells (Thorpe et al., 1990). However, intravenous administration of an immunotoxin containing dgA linked to the anti-fibronectin receptor antibody termed PB1 did not result in reduced vascularization of tumors (Thorpe et al., 1990). Unfortunately, further studies also revealed that fibronectin receptors were too ubiquitous to enable good targeting of tumor vasculature.
Other molecular markers have been described that are specific for endothelial cells, although not for tumor endothelial cells. For example, an endothelial-leukocyte adhesion molecule, termed ELAM-1, has been identified that can be induced on the surface of endothelial cells through the action of cytokines such as IL-1, TNF, lymphotoxin or bacterial endotoxin (Bevilacqua et al., 1987). However, the art currently lacks methods by which such inducible molecules could be effectively employed in connection with an anti-cancer strategy. Thus, unfortunately, while vascular targeting presents promising theoretical advantages, no effective strategies incorporating these advantages have been developed.